Music blares, hammers swing and anvils ring. The World Championship Blacksmiths (WCB) kicked off its 10th season in April at the Midwest Horse Show in Madison, Wis. — the group’s opening venue for several years. To the equine enthusiasts passing through the tent, it is a forging competition like they’ve never seen. There’s definite truth to that.

Judging anything can be extremely difficult because of all the factors and variables involved. There are the unseen aspects of judging horseshoeing contests that play a big part in the placing of the competitors.

Now in its third year, the mail-in forging exercise, co-sponsored by the World Championship Blacksmiths’ Competition and American Farriers Journal, once again dramatically increased its number of participants and the overall value of products those competitors received.

We had a few technical glitches with Round 5 of the “What’s This?” contest. But when everything was cleared up, we still got some great answers from interested farriers regarding an obviously badly damaged hoof.

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Held at Iowa State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, this annual clinic brings farriers and veterinary students together for presentations, discussion and contests. The unique offering is a farrier-vet student clinic in which teams featuring both build a case history scenario and shoeing for a cadaver limb.

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